Lots of great teaching stories and tips in this one! Two teachers (and longtime friends) join Kailey to get the tea on getting back to school.  They talk back-to-school routines, first week tips, introducing yourself to new families, hitting the wall, relationship-centered learning, and more. And of course: What’s on your back-to-school playlist? Thanks to our guests: Shelby Coffin, ELA teacher @ Decatur High School, and Olivia Rocamora, high school Spanish teacher @ the Weber School.

Turn learning evidence into instructional action
Activate MAP® Reading Fluency™ with professional learning around using your assessment data to gain a more holistic view of early readers’ abilities and how to target instruction that is just right for each student and track learning progress.

Master math practices that maximize achievement and growth
This math suite provides educators with a deep understanding of content and research-based instructional practices, along with ways to apply that understanding to their unique grade-level instructional needs and content standards.

Turn learning evidence into instructional action
Activate MAP® Growth™ with professional learning experiences that build basic product-use capacity, hone assessment literacy, improve goal setting and responsive instructional planning, and build deeper data competency.

Kailey chats with actor, comedian, and NWEA professional learning lead consultant Nicholas Joe about how, why, and when teachers get laughs in their classroom. Along the way they discuss strategies like how to pivot in the classroom with a “Yes, and…” mindset and how to utilize comedy in your lesson planning. And yes, Nick gets Kailey to do improv!

What a great crowd for our first live show! After discussing their Georgia roots, Jacob and Kailey chat with their guests about choosing the best summer professional learning opportunities and what gets them motivated at a conference. Next, they turn to the new school year and discuss the biggest challenges ahead, including how to scale success across schools and districts.  Kailey also asks a few of her signature lightning-round, light-hearted questions.  Finally, stay tuned for the audience Q&A at the end of the show for your daily dose of teacher inspiration. There may have been some tears of joy in the room…

One hurdle for young students who are beginning to read is learning letter names, shapes, and sounds. To help students master these arbitrary pairings between letter shape and letter sound, using letter-embedded mnemonics has been found to be more effective than using letters on their own or letters accompanied by a picture. Try out this sample set of embedded mnemonics with your early learners!